As the world鈥檚 urban populations grow, cities become spaces where increasingly diverse peoples negotiate such differences as language, citizenship, ethnicity and race, class and wealth, and gender. Using a comparative framework, Urban Diversity examines the multiple meanings of inclusion and exclusion in fast鈥攃hanging urban contexts. The contributors identify specific areas of contestation, including public spaces and facilities, governmental structures, civil society institutions, cultural organizations, and cyberspace.
The contributors also explore the socioeconomic and cultural mechanisms that can encourage inclusive pluralism in the world鈥檚 cities, seeking approaches that view diversity as an asset rather than a threat. Exploring old and new public spaces, practices of marginalized urban dwellers, and actions of the state, the contributors to Urban Diversity assess the formation and reformation of processes of inclusion, whether through deliberate actions intended to rejuvenate democratic political institutions or the spontaneous reactions of city residents.
Caroline Wanjiku Kihato is a senior research fellow at the School of Architecture and Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand. Mejgan Massoumi is the manager and program coordinator for the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley, and former project associate of the Comparative Urban Studies Program (CUSP) at the Woodrow 浪花直播 Center. Blair A. Ruble is director of CUSP and director of the Kennan Institute.
Since 1991, the Urban Sustainability Laboratory has advanced solutions to urban challenges鈥攕uch as poverty, exclusion, insecurity, and environmental degradation鈥攂y promoting evidence-based research to support sustainable, equitable and peaceful cities. Read more
